The present invention relates to artificial devices for assisting the pumping action of a heart.
Cardiac disorders often prevent the heart from being able to contract properly and pump blood through the arteries. One treatment involves surgically implanting an artificial pacing device with electrodes attached to the surface or inside of the heart. A controller of the implanted pacing device periodically sends electrical pulses to the electrodes which stimulate the heart muscle to contract and pump blood from the heart chambers. This pacing action controls the contraction of the heart thereby providing a natural pumping action of the blood.
Individuals with more severe cardiac disease may not be eligible for conventional pacing as the muscles of the heart have deteriorated so significantly that external stimulation will not produce sufficient pumping action. Treatment of these individuals may involve cutting away a portion of a ventricle of the heart and implanting an artificial pump in the opening. The artificial pump supplements the heart's pumping action. This radical solution often is the last option available for the patient, as it permanently removes part of the heart where the artificial pump is inserted. Typically this treatment is used only to prolong a person's life long enough to find a donor heart for transplantation.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a technique for artificially inducing contraction of a heart in individuals with significant muscle deterioration, where the procedure is less invasive and less radical than the surgical implantation of an artificial pump.